In todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, and#8220;and#8220;Self, Other and Emptiness,and#8221; Parami speaks from her heart and wealth of experience. In the full talk, and#8220;Out of Compassion for the World,and#8221; she explores the theme of the Buddhaand#8217;s compassionate action and how ultimately it came from beyond self, beyond other and#8211; it emerged from his realisation of and#8216;Emptinessand#8217;.
Dharmabytes from free buddhist audio
Self, Other and Emptiness
[music] Dharma Bites is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for your life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. Thank you, and happy listening. And that polarization is, well, it's part of human nature, so it's a huge demand to go beyond that, and yet it seems to me to be what really needs to happen in this century. Shanti Deva, in his work, the Bodhicharya Vittara, beautifully illustrates that in many different ways. And one thing he says, and this is a quote that I have given to the translators, part of the quote, just the opening, in the opening part of the Bodhicharya Vittara, Shanti Deva says that in this particular translation he says, "Although constructive behavior is constantly weak, while negative forces are extremely strong and most unbearable, except for the full-body chit-a-em, can anything else constructive outshine this." In other translations he says something like, to paraphrase, the power of evil or darkness is remarkably strong, the power of good is weak. If it were not for the awakening heart and mind, how else could we overcome this? And this is wonderful. Many years ago Banti gave a seminar in this text. And in this, if I remember correctly, he says, "Well, this verse is a crucial verse. And what Shanti Deva is saying here is that we cannot overcome the powers of darkness, the forces of evil to use those expressions by sheer psychological goodness. We cannot overcome them on their own level. We cannot overcome polarity while we're within polarity. The only way we can really, truly act against these forces is to transcend that polarity and that difference. And the only way to do that is to work as hard as we possibly can in whatever way possible, whatever conditions we're in, so that that awakening heart arises, so that the body chit-a arises, that our heart awakens to the calls and the cries of the suffering of the world. The body chit-a, the awakening heart, awakens when we're able to stay connected to that suffering, when we were able to really open our eyes, open our ears, open our heart to what's happening in the world around us, while staying centered and clear in our ethical principles and centered in our ability to act in the face of these seemingly unbearable and overwhelming forces. And this body chit-a, this heart comes from the recognizing of the interconnectedness of all beings. Now interconnectedness, it seems to me, has been somewhat sentimentalized recently. I've got a bit fed up here in the bit interconnectedness. Only in the sense that it seems to be coming at me from everywhere. And in some senses, it seems to me to be almost trivialized and almost sentimentalized to the extent that we think, "Oh, where all beings are connected, how beautiful, you know, let's just act in accordance with this principle and everything will be fine." And actually, that's very, I mean, that's beautiful, but how much of a call and a rally to action is that, really? And my fear sometimes is that when that happens, what happens is we almost just expand our ego. But rather than finding ways of cutting through the ego that keeps us separate, we expand our ego so that not only am I the center of the universe, but I am everything, and the center of the universe. That I've overcome this dichotomy by including everything in me so that my ego has become expanded, fattened, made huge to the extent where it might burst. And I don't think that's quite what interconnectedness is about myself. Interconnectiveness is based on a realization of the emptiness of all phenomena. It's based on the realization, going right back to the Buddha's very first teaching, going right back to that experience that the Buddha had under the body tree, that we've had already a couple of times, that moment where the Buddha vibrated with all beings. And when the Buddha realized the truth of the impermanent nature of conditioned existence, and when he realized the insubstantial nature of conditioned existence, when he realized that there is no independent origination, when he realized that all phenomena arise within, all phenomena arise in dependence upon conditions, and that with the cessation of those conditions, the phenomenon ceases to exist. Let me illustrate this with an illustration that Banti uses in the three jewels, one of his books. And in the Dharma section and the nature of existence, Chapter 11, if I may refer you to it, he talks about this. He uses the illustration of a leaf, a leaf on a tree. If we imagine a leaf, all of us can have a sense of what that leaf is, yeah? We've all of us touched and smelled and fell and maybe even tasted a leaf. It begins in a particular way, it starts its life where a particular form, a particular shape, a particular texture, time passes, the conditions change and the leaf changes. Its color changes, its form changes, its texture changes, everything changes. Time passes, the conditions change, the leaf changes. So the leaf that was perhaps white as a bud and became green as an open leaf becomes orange or golden or brown. Its texture changes, it goes from smooth to crinkly. Eventually the conditions are such that it falls from the tree to become part of the conditions for the horizon of the new leaf. If we imagine and think of that leaf, what the Buddha says will not only does the Buddha say that in that leaf, that that leaf doesn't last forever, it arises and it falls with conditions. The Buddha says, the Buddha's teaching says, in that leaf there is nothing beyond the attributes that come together to create that leaf. There is no essential leaf within that around which this color and shape and form become attached. There is only the arising of the conditions, the arising of the form, the arising of all those things, those attributes. There is a leafness that is processed, there is a leaf that comes into being because the conditions were right, that passes and that when the conditions cease to be such, the leaf itself ceases to exist. And this is true for every phenomenon in the phenomenical world. It's true for you, it's true for me, it's true for universities. Everything within the conditioned existence arises and falls in dependence upon other conditions. So we can see that within that there is nothing which is inherently separate from the conditions within which the Buddhism. Because of that, the other side of that, if you like, is that we are all part of the connected nature of those conditions. And without entering the metaphysics of all that, it is a truth which perhaps we can feel in a heart sense. The less we cling to our separate existence, then the more we are able to open to the existence of conditions that arise and that fall, the more we are able to be in the flow of that arising and falling. And the awakening heart is the heartbeat of that arising and falling, it's the heart of the bodhisattva is able to stay beating in the face of those phenomena arising and phenomena falling. And this emptiness is beautiful and it's full and it's rich. Huineng says of emptiness, the emptiness includes the sun, the moon, the stars and the planets. It includes the grey earth, the mountains and the rivers. So everything arises within emptiness and everything ceases within emptiness. But based on that interconnectedness comes, if we really allow our heart to open to it, comes an imperative to act. And this is where our ethics come into play. There's an imperative to act in the world. The Buddha, moved by compassion, came back into the world. We are here, we're enjoying a weekend together, we're practicing together, we're having moments of peace and mindfulness together. And tomorrow we'll go back into the world. What do we take back into the world with us? Well, let's hope we take back clear ethical principles. We take back a heart that bit more committed, a heartbeat more in tune with the awakening heart. We hope you enjoyed today's Dharma Bite. Please help us keep this free. Make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. And thank you. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]